So I started watching Arrow
Oct. 27th, 2014 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalGot about 2/3 of the way through Arrow season 1 this weekend. Approximately 75% of my reasoning for diving in was "I am really liking The Flash," which is a spin-off and this week's episode is a ~Felicity crossover OMG~ so I kinda wanted to catch up? (idk everyone seemed to love Felicity, so I was like imma just go with it, and okay 15 eps in I get it. I love Felicity, too.)
Sidebar: if you're not watching The Flash, you should be, because Barry Allen is the most adorable superhero ever. I'm serious, the cuteness factor is off the charts. And not cute as in attractive, although he is that, but cute as in, like, puppies. Watching this show is like rolling around in a pile of puppies.
Arrow is... not that, lol. But still good! Y'all know I'm way more of a Marvel girl, so I have literally zero exposure to DC comics, but it's one of those shows where I felt like I knew a lot going in, just by fandom osmosis:
1. Oliver Queen: rich playboy turned vigilante. The guy you get when you don't have the rights to Batman. Fights crime using a bow and arrow because nothing says "taking down the privileged elite and reviving the inner city" like medieval weaponry?Hey, it makes more sense than dressing up like a bat ahem.
2. Oliver was basically stranded on the island from Lost for five years, during which he picked up his superheroing skills and his thirst for justice. (ngl, at one point, Flashback Oliver is like, "What, there are wolves on this island, too? OF COURSE THERE ARE," and I was just like, "LOL oh man wait till he finds out about the polar bears and the time travel.")
3. Felicity Smoak: Everyone in fandom loves Felicity, and ships Oliver/Felicity even though she is not the love interest the show wants you to ship.
4. Laurel is the Arrow version of Iris, basically. Or, I suppose Iris is the Flash version of Laurel, since Laurel came first? Whatever, Laurel is out of the loop on Oliver's secret identity, and therefore never gets to do anything fun.
5. Stephen Amell's abs are crazy awesome, and he is shirtless like 90% of the time.
And... I mean, none of those things really turned out to be inaccurate? lol
If it's a Batman rip-off, at least it's an interesting one. (This may be my Marvel bias, but I actually see more shades of Iron Man in Oliver's origin story, what with the kidnapped/tortured/forced to survive in extreme situation and coming back to civilization a changed man thing, rather than Batman's basic dead parents deal.) I do find it hilarious and awesome that Oliver doesn't have a defined superhero identity, so everyone just calls him "the hood guy" and then points out what a terrible name that is. This is apparently a shared universe of descriptively literal and wildly uncreative people, as over on The Flash, people are calling Barry "the red streak" (but at least there they have Cisco giving all the bad guys supervillain nicknames, which is fun).
The Robin Hood jokes are too easy to pass up, I get that, but then there was an episode where the villain was a thief called the Dodger and NO ONE MADE AN OLIVER TWIST REFERENCE. I am disappoint, Show.
I feel like we're getting to the point where they could scale back the island flashbacks a bit - half the time they don't really tell us anything new, but they're wedded to the structure. I can only assume that by season 4 we will start getting flash forwards to a bearded and drunk Oliver yelling, "We have to go back, Kate!"
Felicity is all I had hoped for and more, although (sorry, Olicity fans) at this point I am rooting for Barry and Felicity, despite not having seen them interact yet. I expect the cuteness will be too much to handle, I may spontaneously combust AND I CANNOT WAIT.
Laurel's fine, I like her more than Iris (although WOW, the comparison is accurate. Like, maybe if they wanted these shows to exist in the same universe, they could've varied the characters a bit more), because at least she has stuff to DO and she's involved with Oliver's vigilante shenanigans even though she doesn't know it's Oliver. There was a point where I was like, "If every episode ends up being Oliver solving Laurel's legal case for her and her being like, 'Hey, that was weirdly coincidental, but good for me,' that is not going to help me like her," but they mostly got away from that after the first few episodes.
Also, apparently there are other characters on this show! Paul Blackthorne is always welcome - more than once I found myself thinking, "You know, he made a good Harry Dresden," and mourning the mishandling of that show. I laughed at the early eps with Oliver always giving his bodyguard the slip (and then the poor new guy after Diggle quit, with Oliver telling him to keep up and Diggle being like "oh, that boy is long gone") AND THEN THEY TEAMED UP AND IT WAS ADORABLE. I also get a "young Sarah Michelle Gellar" vibe from the actress playing Oliver's sister. I think maybe it's a combination of her nose, her voice, and her mannerisms. Is it just me?
I don't especially care about the conspiracy or the undertaking or whatever it is, or why they had Oliver's father killed, but John Barrowman as evil mastermind is always fun. (In general, there is a lot of "hey it's that guy!" guest casting here. Ben Browder, Seth Gabel, David Anders... the Gaius Baltar/Tory Foster reunion made me gleeful, though sadly Tahmoh Penikett's character was already dead by that ep.)
That may be all my feels for now. Did I miss anything?
Oh, yeah. Stephen Amell's abs ARE INDEED crazy awesome.
Sidebar: if you're not watching The Flash, you should be, because Barry Allen is the most adorable superhero ever. I'm serious, the cuteness factor is off the charts. And not cute as in attractive, although he is that, but cute as in, like, puppies. Watching this show is like rolling around in a pile of puppies.
Arrow is... not that, lol. But still good! Y'all know I'm way more of a Marvel girl, so I have literally zero exposure to DC comics, but it's one of those shows where I felt like I knew a lot going in, just by fandom osmosis:
1. Oliver Queen: rich playboy turned vigilante. The guy you get when you don't have the rights to Batman. Fights crime using a bow and arrow because nothing says "taking down the privileged elite and reviving the inner city" like medieval weaponry?
2. Oliver was basically stranded on the island from Lost for five years, during which he picked up his superheroing skills and his thirst for justice. (ngl, at one point, Flashback Oliver is like, "What, there are wolves on this island, too? OF COURSE THERE ARE," and I was just like, "LOL oh man wait till he finds out about the polar bears and the time travel.")
3. Felicity Smoak: Everyone in fandom loves Felicity, and ships Oliver/Felicity even though she is not the love interest the show wants you to ship.
4. Laurel is the Arrow version of Iris, basically. Or, I suppose Iris is the Flash version of Laurel, since Laurel came first? Whatever, Laurel is out of the loop on Oliver's secret identity, and therefore never gets to do anything fun.
5. Stephen Amell's abs are crazy awesome, and he is shirtless like 90% of the time.
And... I mean, none of those things really turned out to be inaccurate? lol
If it's a Batman rip-off, at least it's an interesting one. (This may be my Marvel bias, but I actually see more shades of Iron Man in Oliver's origin story, what with the kidnapped/tortured/forced to survive in extreme situation and coming back to civilization a changed man thing, rather than Batman's basic dead parents deal.) I do find it hilarious and awesome that Oliver doesn't have a defined superhero identity, so everyone just calls him "the hood guy" and then points out what a terrible name that is. This is apparently a shared universe of descriptively literal and wildly uncreative people, as over on The Flash, people are calling Barry "the red streak" (but at least there they have Cisco giving all the bad guys supervillain nicknames, which is fun).
The Robin Hood jokes are too easy to pass up, I get that, but then there was an episode where the villain was a thief called the Dodger and NO ONE MADE AN OLIVER TWIST REFERENCE. I am disappoint, Show.
I feel like we're getting to the point where they could scale back the island flashbacks a bit - half the time they don't really tell us anything new, but they're wedded to the structure. I can only assume that by season 4 we will start getting flash forwards to a bearded and drunk Oliver yelling, "We have to go back, Kate!"
Felicity is all I had hoped for and more, although (sorry, Olicity fans) at this point I am rooting for Barry and Felicity, despite not having seen them interact yet. I expect the cuteness will be too much to handle, I may spontaneously combust AND I CANNOT WAIT.
Laurel's fine, I like her more than Iris (although WOW, the comparison is accurate. Like, maybe if they wanted these shows to exist in the same universe, they could've varied the characters a bit more), because at least she has stuff to DO and she's involved with Oliver's vigilante shenanigans even though she doesn't know it's Oliver. There was a point where I was like, "If every episode ends up being Oliver solving Laurel's legal case for her and her being like, 'Hey, that was weirdly coincidental, but good for me,' that is not going to help me like her," but they mostly got away from that after the first few episodes.
Also, apparently there are other characters on this show! Paul Blackthorne is always welcome - more than once I found myself thinking, "You know, he made a good Harry Dresden," and mourning the mishandling of that show. I laughed at the early eps with Oliver always giving his bodyguard the slip (and then the poor new guy after Diggle quit, with Oliver telling him to keep up and Diggle being like "oh, that boy is long gone") AND THEN THEY TEAMED UP AND IT WAS ADORABLE. I also get a "young Sarah Michelle Gellar" vibe from the actress playing Oliver's sister. I think maybe it's a combination of her nose, her voice, and her mannerisms. Is it just me?
I don't especially care about the conspiracy or the undertaking or whatever it is, or why they had Oliver's father killed, but John Barrowman as evil mastermind is always fun. (In general, there is a lot of "hey it's that guy!" guest casting here. Ben Browder, Seth Gabel, David Anders... the Gaius Baltar/Tory Foster reunion made me gleeful, though sadly Tahmoh Penikett's character was already dead by that ep.)
That may be all my feels for now. Did I miss anything?
Oh, yeah. Stephen Amell's abs ARE INDEED crazy awesome.
